History/Philosophy

Several physicians, born in Empoli area, have an outstanding position in the history of medicine. First of all, we have to stress the great insights into anatomy and physiology that Leonardo (Vinci 1452 – Cloux 1519) realized about five centuries ago. The second scientist we want to introduce is Michele Mercati, who was born in San Miniato on 1541. He was educated at the University of Pisa, where he took degrees in Medicine and Philosophy. In a short time he became famous as 'simplicist', that meant expert in medicinal herbs. Michele Mercati was superintendent of the Vatican Botanical Garden under many Popes. The third physician we want to remember is Giuseppe Del Papa (Empoli 1648 – Florence 1735), disciple and friend of Francesco Redi. He was Professor of Medicine at the University of Pisa and he became the first physician to Grand Duke Cosimo III and thereafter Gian Gastone. His scientific works concerned the character of natural elements, such as heat, cold, fire, light, moisture and drought. He complied with a natural and simple medicine, inspired by Redi. After his death, the great inheritance was used to build just the ancient 'San Giuseppe Hospital', where the Centre of Natural Medicine is nowadays. Finally, we want to deal with Vincenzio Chiarugi, born in Empoli on 1759 and died in Florence on 1820. He was one of the first in history to consider the 'mentally deranged' to be patients like the physically ill, and he operated accordingly. Chiarugi was appointed by the Grand Duke Leopoldo I to plan the new hospital of San Bonifazio, which would become the first site of human care of people with mental illness. Traditional European Medicine as outlined in the Corpus Hippocraticum has two major therapeutic principles: a constitutional (holistic) therapy and a patient-specific (in time, 'nature' and dosage) approach. The concept is often referred to as the doctrine of four humours. The available medication (mostly food and herbs) was analogously allocated to four categories: hot or cold and, in addition, wet or dry. Nowadays these concepts are still in use in naturopathy practise. This literature study reviews several medieval and renaissance European herbals comparing the allocation of herbs to these four categories. Additionally, the hypothesis is presented that this classification of herbs may be related to the function of the secondary plant compounds as described in chemo taxonomy and chemical ecology. The 'nature' of food and …